In the day and age of self deification, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is upset the Los Angeles Lakers have not immortalized his greatness yet with a statue outside Staples Center according to the Sporting News.

“I don’t understand (it). It’s either an oversight or they’re taking me for granted. I’m not going to try to read people’s minds, but it doesn’t make me happy. It’s definitely a slight. I feel slighted,” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar told the Sporting News.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also sent the Sporting News an official statement about his feelings on the lack of a statue. “I am highly offended by the total lack of acknowledgement of my contribution to Laker success. I guess being the lynchpin for five world championships is not considered significant enough in terms of being part of Laker history.”

Usually words like this would draw an immediate, “get over yourself” reaction. But this is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were talking about here. He is one of the greatest all-time basketball players in NBA (and NCAA college basketball) history.

Michael Jordan has a statue outside Chicago’s United Center. Heck, even Tim Tebow has a statue at the University of Florida and Auburn University is expected to erect a statue of Cam Newton soon.

Lakers spokesperson John Black told the Sporting News the next statue a Lakers player will be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but there is no timetable for that. Currently, the Staples Center has five statues surrounding the arena, Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Chick Hearn, Wayne Gretzky and Oscar De La Hoya.

Does Kareem Abdul-Jabbar have a legitimate beef with the Lakers organization here or does he need to get over himself?

The Orlando Magic definitely have an uphill climb towards repeating as Eastern Conference champions with the Celtics holding a 3-1 advantage. And Dwight Howard’s Game 4 performance (32 points, 16 rebounds) was a large step in the right direction.

But will Dwight Howard’s magic last? That was the question posed on ESPN’s First Take Tuesday morning for debaters Skip Bayless and ESPN NBA reporter Chris Broussard following the Magic’s 96-92 overtime clutch win in Boston Monday night.

“Is this a blip or is this going to be a trend?” ESPN First Take host Jay Crawford asked the debaters.

“First of all, I’m not sure if he was serious or just sad,” Chris Broussard said. “Whatever it was I liked it. I liked his demeanor, I wish it would become a trend, maybe down the line it will be, but I really fear that it’s just a blip. You know Dwight’s a guy that likes to talk about God and likes to quote scripture. He needs to go to the book of Ecclesiastes. There is a time to laugh and a time to kill, there’s a time for everything. And the time before a playoff game is a time to kill, in the basketball sense. He’s got to get that demeanor.”

The two debaters were in agreement.

“I thought last night was a blip. Because that sullen, driven Dwight Howard that we saw, it was different. That’s not his typical personality. That was an aberration night,” Skip Bayless said. I’ve been very hard on Dwight sitting right here. We’ve all been hard on Dwight at one time or another because of games like last night where we all sit back and say ‘Aha! See what he could be?’”

So can Dwight Howard keep momentum for Game 5? Or was Monday night just a fluke?